I love tofu! First sliced, pressed down under a weighted plate on paper towels, then frozen. When I thaw the frozen tofu, it gets pressed down again and has a wonderful texture for absorbing flavors in a liquid, being coated with starch for frying, or marinated and broiled. Yummm! It's so good. Even good in just a hot steaming bowl of miso soup.

I recently discovered that a non-stick griddle pan I own makes a perfect hot, hot surface for cooking tofu. Sometimes, there is just the perfect pairing of pan and food - and that's it for the tofu.

I try to avoid most soy anything. The stuff we get here isn't the healthy soy-paste products that are common in Asian countries. Most of their products really are the fermented versions, which are closer to being healthy foods.

The little bit of tofu I've had (miso soup?) seems pretty bland and uninteresting to me. If I could find "better" sorts, I suppose I might try it... but I hesitate to eat anything that's going to bind other nutrients from absorption in my digestive tract. I spend too much on supplements to let that be the case. Anyone know if that's true for the fermented soy products?

...the problem with people these days is they've forgotten we're really just animals ... (attributation forgotten)

We did not create the web of life; we are but a strand in it. ~attributed to Chief Seattle

I also like my tofu in a stirfry. I usually spend the extra money and buy it already pressed. I just learned that you can cube it and bake it before throwing it into another dish. This browns it nicely and gives it a good meaty texture. However, it also takes a lot of time.

My favourite way to eat tofu is fried in toasted sesame oil and paired with black rice and Shanghai bok choy in a lemon/tahini sauce.

I use tofu instead of meat in stir fries on a fairly regular basis. It's one of those things that doesn't have a strong flavor by itself but will take on the flavor of whatever it's cooked with very easily. It almost reminds me of savory french toast when I stir fry it (similar texture, good sear, etc).

The Most Important Thing when stir frying tofu is to make sure it is very dry before you stick it in the pan. Blocks of tofu (I usually get extra firm) come packed in water so first I dry it off with paper towels and then press it (wrapped in new paper towels) between two plates/bowls/baking sheets for as long as I can so I get the most water out. Otherwise you end up steaming the tofu and it takes forever to brown up.

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